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Mary Target

Organisation(s)

Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families

Overview

Mary Target PhD, first trained in clinical psychology and worked for ten years in NHS acute adult psychiatric services, neuropsychology and child and adolescent mental health. Her experience was mainly in CBT, family therapy, and keyworking with patients suffering severe personality disorders. Having a long-standing interest in psychoanalysis, she carried out the research for her PhD at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, studying the outcomes of child psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. In parallel, she trained as a psychoanalyst at the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London. Her research interests have been broad: treatment outcomes in adult and child mental health, adult and child attachment, adult and child social cognition (especially mentalization). Mary Target is a Professor of Psychoanalysis in the UCL Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology; for the last 16 years she has been Course Director of UCL’s MSc in Psychoanalytic Theory, she also teaches undergraduates and supervises several PhD students. Mary has written and co-authored papers across all these areas of work and frequently gives keynote conference presentations. She has chaired several committees at UCL, the British Psycho-Analytical Society, the British Psychological Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association, and she has served on several editorial boards. She has a half-time adult psychoanalytic practice.